During Wednesday's edition of MSNBC Live, host Stephanie Ruhle caught Elizabeth Warren off guard when she asked the Democratic senator from Massachusetts a question she probably did not want to hear: “Why has income inequality failed to get significantly better in the last eight years?” After all, both she and President Barack Obama were in office during that period.
Warren responded that the policies set in Washington “over and over and over help those who can hire armies of lobbyists and those who can hire armies of lawyers. The policies here are for the billionaires. They’re for the bankers. … And regular families, just people who are trying to put it together day by day by day, they’re the ones who get left behind.”
Ruhle introduced the senator as a person who “has been a public thorn in the side of Republicans for quite some time” and is “a fearless woman who every day is out there fighting” for the little guys, “many of whom believe that President Donald Trump has an answer” to their economic woes.
“What are they missing?” the host asked.
Warren responded:
You know, President Trump tapped into something important, and that is that families are feeling a lot of pressure, and a lot of folks are feeling angry, angry that a young person can't make it through college without getting crushed by student loan debt, angry that wages have stayed flat and that expenses have continued to climb for housing and health care, angry that it's really tough to retire in America now and be able to keep a roof over your head and groceries on the table.
But what Donald Trump has done since he got into the White House is he's turned over the keys to government to the billionaires and the bankers, and basically said: “Run this government the way you guys want to make it work better for you.”
“Our problem is not that Washington doesn’t work well enough for the billionaires and the bankers,” the senator continued. “Our problem is it’s not working for working families.”
“Why?” Ruhle pressed. “Why has income inequality failed to get significantly better in the last eight years? Because when we look at the last 45 days, President Trump is surrounded by those CEOs who’ve been complaining the last eight years. Why is it good times for them?”
“A big part of what’s going on here,” Warren responded, is that “the policies set right here in Washington … over and over and over, help those who can hire armies of lobbyists and those who can hire armies of lawyers.”
Ruhle again pushed back: “But Senator, you guys were in power for the last eight years. Why is it that it didn’t work for those good Americans you were working for?”
Of course, Warren placed most of the blame on the Republicans.
“Let’s be clear about what it means to be in power,” she stated. “The Republicans had a blocking position. When they didn’t have a blocking position, we got the Affordable Care Act through, and … we got through the Wall Street reforms.”
However, “once they had a blocking position in the Senate and then in the House, we couldn’t get the minimum wage increase,” Warren continued. “We couldn’t get increases into Social Security. We couldn’t get a more progressive tax bill.”
The Democratic official added: “So look, I don’t want to try to shovel off all the blame. I think there’s plenty that we can do, we should have done, we must do in the future on our side of the aisle.”
“But let’s be very clear,” she noted. The Republicans “are here to make sure that Washington works for those at the very, very top, and they have done a great job of that.”
Ruhle then said: “I understand how frustrating this must be, since Republicans were in a position to block all this time, and the American people haven’t been served. Do you think you could work with Republicans, or is resistance the only answer?”
“Let's pick the Affordable Care Act as the perfect example,” Warren stated. “For years now, we have said that we need to make improvements to the Affordable Care Act, to ObamaCare, and the answer from Republicans has been: 'Repeal, repeal, repeal, repeal, repeal.'”
“Well, that's not an improvement,” she continued. “That would leave millions of people without health care and even those who have health care with much less coverage.”
“Is there room, though, for you to possibly change your position or open your mind somewhat as it relates to corporate America?” Ruhle asked. “Corporations do hire, they do help people, and we're looking at the way people voted and maybe there's a line in the middle.”
“I want corporations to do well; I just want them to follow the rules, and frankly, I don't think that's too unreasonable,” Warren said as the interview concluded.
